Bar'am

Bar'am (Hebrew: בַּרְעָם, lit. Son of the People), sometimes spelled as Baram, is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located approximately 300 meters from Israel's border with Lebanon near the ruins of the ancient Jewish village of Kfar Bar'am.[2] Bar'am National Park is known for the remains of one of Israel's oldest synagogues.[3] The kibbutz falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council and had a population of 594 in 2019.[1]

For other uses, see Bar'am (disambiguation).
Bar'am
Bar'am
Coordinates: 33°03′30″N 35°26′00″E
CountryIsrael
DistrictNorthern
CouncilUpper Galilee
AffiliationKibbutz Movement
Founded16 June 1949
Founded byDemobilized Palmach soldiers
Population
 (2019)[1]
594
Websitewww.baram.org.il
Ruins of the ancient synagogue at Kfar Bar'am
Ruins of the depopulated Maronite village

Bar'am is built on the land of the Palestinian village of Kafr Bir'im, whose inhabitant were expelled by the Haganah during Operation Hiram in 1948.[4][5]

History

The site of Bar'am has been inhabited by the Jews and their ancient ancestors the Israelites, since ancient times. The ancient Jewish village of Bar'am existed from the 3rd century BCE at its earliest with Jews maintaining a continuous presence in the village until sometime after the 13th century CE.[6] The village and its Jewish population is referenced in several historic accounts, In 1210 CE, Rabbi Shmuel bar Shimshon wrote of two beautiful synagogues that were in use in the Village of Baram in Galilee. These synagogues still stand today, and on the window over the right hand entrance of the larger synagogue, there is an engraving in Aramaic which reads "Built by Elazar son of Yuden (or Yudan)". Later in 1210, Rabbi Yehiel of Paris recorded his visit to the village in his writings. However by 1522, the Italian Rabbi Moshe Basula writes of the Bar'am's apparent abandonment, as did Rabbi Moshe of Jerusalem in 1769. The Maronite Christians from Lebanon built their village atop the Jewish ruins on the site sometime in the 19th century. Their church stands on top of the hill opposite the large synagogue. the Jewish population left Kfar Bar'am, which became a mainly Christian village called Kafr Bir'im on the Lebanese border, which was bulldozed by Israel in 1949. The Christian Arab inhabitants of the town were evicted from their homes due to the Israel Defense Forces insistence that the border area with Lebanon be empty of Palestinians.[6][4][5][7]

Kibbutz Bar'am
The volunteer workforce in Baram presently stands at 65 young folks who have come from South Africa, Sweden, the US, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Britain, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico and Burma. They are taking time out to see a bit of the world, and include a kibbutz experience into their backpacking globetrot. "Volunteers began to be part of the kibbutz scene during the [Six Day] War in 1967," explains Raviv Gutman, who has for the past two years been responsible for what could almost be deemed the youth wing of the United Nations temporarily living, working and socializing in his kibbutz. Born in 1968 to Israeli parents who had joined the kibbutz in their youth, Gutman has grown up with the volunteer phenomenon and is married to Catalina, a former volunteer from Columbia now on the "absorption track" in Baram. "As a community we also see past the work aspect of having volunteers here. It has always been understood that the influx of young people from all over the world has been an important asset to the community as they bring with them a very special vitality. While they are exposed to our different way of life, values and culture, a great deal is learned from the diverse backgrounds they also bring to our midst," says Gutman, one of four brothers - all of whom are members of the kibbutz. "Another major factor is that when they return to their countries of origin they talk to their family and friends about their time on the kibbutz and traveling the country, by themselves as well as with trips we arrange. In all honesty, they are the best ambassadors that Israel could have," he points out. Gutman is also the Rabash (security coordinator) of Baram and like many kibbutzniks of the old mode, wears a number of hats job-wise and is constantly on the run. Our conversation is interrupted constantly by members who approach him with questions regarding guard duty at the gate and suchlike matters, or volunteers with work, visa or food queries. His mobile phone also works overtime. Word of mouth - or as one young man said, "oral jungle drums" - is how most of the young people from abroad knew about volunteering in Baram. "It's either that, or the internet these days," adds Gutman. "They know why they want to come to Baram and many actually say they are not willing to go to any other kibbutz, only here. At the moment there are three girls from Mexico waiting in Tel Aviv for places to become vacant here. They had friends who were here and just don't want anywhere else." He points out that he does not take volunteers on spec, and that it is risky to just come to Israel expecting to find a place easily. Perched high on the Galilean mountain range, Kibbutz Baram is almost hidden from view by an abundance of high trees. The narrow road winding its way across the brow of the mountain range hugs the northern border fence with neighboring Lebanon. The hills on the other side are dotted with Lebanese villages large and small - some of the red-roofed homes appear almost palatial. Even after a long and hot summer, there is no shortage of greenery on the Israeli side of the border fence.[8]
— Raviv Gutman, longtime resident of Kibbutz Bar'am

Modern Bar'am is a secular kibbutz established by members of the socialist Hashomer Hatzair movement on 14 June 1949 to guard and hold the border with Lebanon by demobilized Palmach soldiers. Baram was the last kibbutz to dispense with the communal child rearing system that was once typical of kibbutzes in 1997, is looked upon by many as a sort of "nature reserve." A few kibbutzim have remained faithful to the original utopian ideology of everybody on the kibbutz being equal regardless of how long their tenure, and still provide three square meals a day in a communal dining room and hold general meetings to discuss and vote on important issues relating to Baram. Life in Bar'am centers around agriculture as well as tourism related to the nearby ancient synagogues and ruins, and the kibbutz has one of the largest volunteer programs, but today the reasons volunteers come now have less to do with the socialist ideology commonly associated with kibbutzes and more to with having fun and the social opportunities for young people presented by communal living. This has seen a big push in the kibbutz to abolish its volunteer program, which has not yet occurred. Bar'am is one of the most popular kibbutz for Jewish volunteers from the diaspora to volunteer at, as many of the other kibbutz volunteer programs have closed down over the years, each one for its own specific reasons, which culminated in many potential Kibbutz Bar'am volunteers being turned away, as there was simply not enough room to accommodate them. As a reward for their work in the fields, every Tuesday and Friday the local kibbutzniks and volunteers alike are said to head to the local town pub and party.[9] In 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, the kibbutz came under attack from Hezbollah forces and was the victim of heavy shelling and missile fire, which damaged the agricultural fields. The kibbutz is located mere metres away from the Lebanese border, and the Hezbollah flag flying in front of homes across the border is a common sight.[10] In July 2006, several Katyusha missiles exploded in nearby fields.[11] The following year, Kibbutz Baram was home to 65 volunteers hailing from South Africa, Sweden, the US, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Britain, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico and Burma. during the summer following the Second Lebanon War alone.[8]

Economy
I was to start work at 6:30am, a time where most of the world will be fast asleep. Entering the factory, I was the first of the volunteers to arrive. I sat down in the coffee room where a couple of the younger members of the kibbutz work force were sipping their coffee in an attempt to wake up for a hard days work. I too indulged in a caffeine boost. The apples started to roll through the big machine and I sat down at one of the many packing stations. My job was mundane at the best of times but I found solace in the mindless job of putting apples in a box. Every now and then, my thoughts would be interrupted by a deep voice over the loud speaker. “Keep going, keep going”. I questioned this method of motivation but the supervisor insisted that it reminded the lazy volunteer that he needed to work faster and stop daydreaming. For me it simply broke my concentration.[9]
— Simon Trainor, Jewish Australian volunteer on Kibbutz Bar'am

The economy of Kibbutz Bar'am is centered around agriculture, as Bar'am is home to numerous orchards where a variety of fruits including apples, pears, nectarines, plums, kiwi, snd Chinese gooseberries are grown and harvested. The fields are tended by Jewish volunteers who live on the kibbutz. Some of the volunteers are from Israel, while most of the are Jews from abroad from countries such as Mexico, Canada, Australia, Columbia, the USA, and more. The kibbutz is also home to a packing plant, where the fruit is sorted, packed and kept in cold storage until it is delivered to markets throughout Israel.[8] Other crops include corn, peanuts and sunflower seeds. In addition, the kibbutz has ponds for fish farming. The kibbutz also has land holdings cultivated with cotton in the Hula Valley, near Ne'ot Mordehai.[9]

The kibbutz also has a factory that manufactures plastics for medical purposes.[8]

Culture
Pushing and shoving my way around the crowd, I saw it. There it was in the glare of the afternoon sun. Bus number 560 to kibbutz Baram. I do not remember much of the two and a half hour drive but as we wound our way towards the kibbutz I thought that this was certainly, a place far removed from the hustle and bustle of the city. I had reached the end of the earth. Dave Nirens was there waiting for me. He too was from Melbourne Australia. A product of the kibbutz idealism of the youth movement Habonim Dror that he attended until the age of eighteen. Although he is an Israeli Australian, he looks more like an Indian chief with his long graying hair, dark skin and brown eyes. I will never forget the first volunteer I met. Anders, sitting on the steps outside the room block greeted me with a smile. The sky, already dark, hid his otherwise stereotypically Danish features of blond curly hair and dark blue eyes. He showed me my room and then took me to the common room. The haze of Noblesse cigarettes filled the room almost as much as the many people from different corners of the world. The walls covered with names of past volunteers written around their flag of origin almost as a way to immortalize the time they spent on kibbutz. Everyone in the room introduced themselves to me as if it were essential I memorize their names instantly. Dinnertime saw the large dining room half empty with volunteers on one side and native kibbutzniks on the other. This segregation, I discovered over my time there, was due mainly to the arrogant kibbutz attitude that it is the role of the volunteers to break the ice and mingle with the locals rather than the other way around.[9]
— Simon Trainor, Jewish Australian volunteer on Kibbutz Bar'am

The culture of Bar'am centers around kibbutz life and is a blend of local Israeli culture and various foreign cultures brought by the kibbutz volunteers who hail from all over the world. operates the Bar David Museum, which houses bi-annual exhibitions from the large permanent collection of paintings and Jewish ritual objects, plus temporary exhibitions of fine art, sculpture and photography, and a small Archeology Room that exhibits objects from the region, such as ceramic and glass artefacts and jewellery and statuettes.

See also

References
  1. "Population in the Localities 2019" (XLS). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  2. Jacob Neusner, Bertold Spuler & Hady R Idris (2001) Judaism in late antiquity, BRILL, p155
  3. Steven Fine (2005) Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman world: toward a new Jewish archaeology, Cambridge University Press, pp13–14
  4. Morris, 2004, p. xxii, settlement #160
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p. 461
  6. Yudin, Joe. "Off The Beaten Track: Baram's ancient synagogue". Jerusalem Post. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  7. Benny Morris (1997) Israel's border wars, 1949-1956: Arab infiltration, Israeli retaliation, and the countdown to the Suez War, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, p124
  8. Where volunteers are no anachronism, The Jerusalem Post
  9. Trainor, Simon. "A timeless kibbutz experience: Kibbutz Baram - An Apple of a Time". WZO. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  10. "Rockets Fell on the New Tuscany". Economist. The Economist. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  11. Einav, Hagai. "Katyusha rockets hit Galilee". Yedioth Ahronoth. YNet. Retrieved 12 October 2021.

Bibliography
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